#LaquanMcdonald

[themotionz]

Why We’re Here

Tamir Rice. Micheal Brown. Eric Garner. Breonna Taylor. George Floyd. Each of these people died at the hands of police officers for no good reason.  Despite social media coverage and protests following these deaths, police violence in America has not decreased.  Nothing has changed.

More than 1,100 people are killed due to police violence each year, making America one of the worst nations for police brutality in the western world. And the risk is 2.5 times more likely for an African-American man to be killed by the police than a white person.

We are seeing a needless amount of casualties- and it’s not just because of a few bad apples. The entire American policing system contributes to the problems that we see today. We need not just to protest, but to push for specific legislative changes.  In a series of posts, we hope to inform you about the reformable problems in the police system.  

Specifically, we will focus on:

The problems of fear-based training

The abuse of power by police unions

The Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights

The dangers of prosecutor relationships

And the injustice in qualified immunity

First, through an emphasis on fear-based training, officers are primed to see the community that they are supposed to serve as a threat- no wonder they find enemies where there are none.  

This is in contrast to other nations, such as the U.K, where most police officers aren’t even armed with guns. They are trained instead in conflict de-escalation to talk down an armed suspect to eliminate the threat, without the need for force.  The UK reported 55 fatal shootings between 1990 and 2014, which in over two decades is 20 times less than the amount of deaths in a single year in America, even though their population is only 6 times less than ours.

And because the investigation and trial process is biased towards officers, they are often not even held accountable for any misconduct.

In the past 15 years, only 35 officers were convicted of crimes related to on-duty fatal shootings. Only 3 of those officers were convicted of murder.  This means that an officer has less than .02% chance of being convicted of a crime after killing someone. 

Why?

We have the problem of the abuse of power of police unions, who have taken their role of protecting employees too far. For example, some make sure officers receive desk-duty or paid leave while being investigated, and even after being charged for a felony.   Provisions like these in police union contracts deliberately make it difficult to punish officers, and allow them to get off easy.  

Unions are also responsible for the Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights, a set of rules that make it more difficult to investigate an officer and give them an unfair advantage.  For example, officers are entitled to a “cooling off” period of a couple of days before they can be interrogated.  During this period, officers have ample time and ability to access the plaintiffs’ testimonies before they even have to give their statement- an opportunity that a member of the general public does not have..

The corruption does not end with the investigation.

Local prosecutors rely on the police to produce witnesses and gather evidence to prosecute criminals, and develop a working relationship. When they are then expected to prosecute these same cops, it creates a conflict of interest. Because of this, prosecutors will often choose not to press charges, or be less harsh on the police officers who they are supposed to be holding accountable.

In April 2015, Norman Cooper, a 33 year-old African American man drove to his brother’s house while having a mental health episode.  Concerned for Norman’s health, his brother called 911.  He expected officers to be able to talk Norman down, or take him to the hospital.  Instead, officers Flaig and Sanchez quickly lost patience with Cooper’s delirium.  Within 5 minutes of arriving at the scene, the officers began shouting at Cooper.  After 11 minutes, Sanchez began to tase Cooper.  Over the next three minutes, Flaig and Sanchez  shocked Cooper 

“a total of nine times, shooting a 50,000-volt current through his body for nearly a minute total.”  

Cooper’s heart stopped beating 4 minutes later, leaving his wife without a husband and his 2 children without a father.

Cooper’s family sued the officers at fault, but Flaig and Sanchez were still given something called “qualified immunity.”  This immunity is granted when a grand jury determines that an officer should not have been expected to know that their actions were an abuse of power.  For immunity to be rejected, the accused crime must be “clearly established” by a previous case that took place in a similar situation.  This allows ‘unique’ cases where charges are dropped even though an officer is clearly at fault.  

Flaig and Sanchez are not the only ones-the fact that offenses must be “clearly established” is why 

in 2019 more than half of police use of force cases were thrown out,

 as the defendants were granted qualified immunity.

This lack of accountability only reinforces the violence used by cops- it increases distrust between the cop and their community and sends the message that they will get away with whatever force is used.

It is not enough to protest for individual officers to be held accountable- we need true reform, and we need your help.  Find your local representatives and senators, and use this information to push them to take action.  Help end unnecessary police violence one and for all.

[marvinluvualu]

With Covid it is hard to do the regular things we are accustomed to. From the most basic things to the communal things such as...

[israelunitedinchristchicago]

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[changoblanco]

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[dioranddecor]

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[iuicmemphis]

#MemorialDay will not be #Celebrated until #Justice is given to the #Millions Slain in #America! #Slavery, #Colonialism, #PoliceBrutality, #Bombings, #Lynchings and not one guilty verdict yet....learn more at IsraelUnite.org #RunWithMaud #BreonaTaylor #TrayVonMartin #PhilandoCastille #TamirRice #SandraBland #StephonClark #EricGarner #LaquanMcdonald #BothamJean #MichaelBrown #SeanBell #WalterScott #AmadouDiallou https://www.instagram.com/p/CAoJuornEe5/?igshid=16vgwj8yradv1

[ourquietman]

In this world, the reactions of those pundits to Castro’s attack have revealed how comically hollow Democratic civility discourse can be. One of the first post-debate commentators ABC turned to was former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who was indignant about the moment. “That was a disqualifier the way he handled it,” he said. “It will come across as mean and vindictive.” This is coming from a man so cartoonishly mean and vindictive that he once famously sent a dead fish to a pollster who had upset him. Emanuel’s entire political career, which he brought to an abrupt end amidst allegations that his administration had worked to cover up a policeman’s murder of an unarmed black teen named Laquan McDonald—name-checked by Castro on the debate stage—has been proof positive that intra-party comity is a norm that serves only the party’s leadership. The establishment figures tightly clutching their pearls about Castro were happy to retain a man willing to call progressives “fucking retarded” as a powerful fixer and make him mayor of Chicago because Democratic civility is, primarily, an instrument of party control. It’s now weakening—to the benefit not only of progressives and leftists who want to remake the party, but also those who think it’s their turn to run the party we already have.

Osita Nwanevu In THE NEW REPUBLIC.

[daughterofdessalines]

THE CHICAGO PD WANNA CONVICT JUSSIE SMOLLETT MORE THAN THEY WANNA BREATH. WHICH MEANS THEY MUST REALLY NOT HAVE A CASE IF THEY DROPPED IT.

Now Rahm Emanuel wants to show up with some petty financial punishment.

Like Whaaaaaaa!?!

Rahm Emanuel is a whole 👏🏿 mother 👏🏿 fucking 👏🏿criminal !!!! #laquanmcdonald

HOW DO HUMAN FILTH LIKE RAHM EMANUEL AND TRUMP GET TO WEIGH IN ON THIS !?!

They wanna drag this out for some distraction-giving-Fox-news-content-type-shit.

[dichotomous-me]

Do you ever get so angry hot tears fall from your eyes?

That’s how I felt when, sitting with my mom on her bed, I watched Jason Van Dyke sentenced to 6 years in prison (parole available) for using his power as a police officer to gun down an innocent teenager. Jason Van Dyke shot Laquan McDonald 16 times. Jason Van Dyke kept shooting Laquan after his body was crumpled on the ground and his heart stopped beating. Jason Van Dyke unloaded all 16 bullets from his gun into Laquan’s chest. What did Laquan do to warrant his murder? He had a pocketknife with a blade as long as my pinkie-finger, the same length blade I carry with me whenever I leave the house.

“Video of the shooting shows that Van Dyke was advancing on McDonald, while McDonald was walking away from Van Dyke when the first shot was fired. The first shot hit McDonald, who spun and fell to the ground. As McDonald lay on the ground, still holding the knife, Van Dyke fired more shots into him. In total, Van Dyke fired 16 shots at McDonald in 14–15 seconds, expending the maximum capacity of his 9 mm semi-automatic firearm. Van Dyke was on the scene for less than 30 seconds before opening fire and began shooting approximately six seconds after exiting his car. The first responding officer said that he did not see the need to use force, and none of the at least eight other officers on the scene fired their weapons.”

Jason Van Dyke and the rest of the Chicago Police Department lied and falsified official documents. They said Laquan was “crazed” and “running towards Van Dyke with a knife”. There were eight other officers who saw Jason Van Dyke kill Laquan in cold blood and said nothing. This is not hearsay. There is a video of Jason Van Dyke arriving on the scene, getting out of his car, and immeadiately using his firearm to end a young man’s life and continue to tear through his flesh after he was on the ground. There are records of the falsified reports calling Van Dyke’s actions “justified” and painting Laquan as a drugged-up menace.

So you can see why, when Jason Van Dyke received a 6 year sentence that will probably be commuted to 3, when the 3 officers charged with covering Laquan’s murder up were acquitted, when the news cut away from the accomplished black female lawyer, explaining how the judge specifically chose to sentence Van Dyke on the 2nd degree murder and not aggravated battery because it would get Van Dyke off sooner, to Van Dyke’s defense lawyer saying how much his client would “miss his family”, hot tears poured out of my eyes.

This is not justice for Laquan. This is more of the same bullshit but they’ve disguised it as progress. This is not progress. There is no world where this is not a mockery, plain and simple. This is a mockery of Laquan and his life, a mockery of every black body that has been gunned down by police, a mockery of every black person stopped by police, unsure whether they’re gonna make it home.

This is not justice for Laquan McDonald. This is not justice for Trayvon Martin. This is not justice for Michael Brown. This is not justice for Eric Garner. This is not justice for Malissa Williams. This is not justice for Natasha Mckenna. This is not justice for Tanisha Anderson. This is not justice for Yvette Smith. Miriam Carey. Shelly Frey. Alesia Thomas. Shantel Davis. Sharmel Edwards. Rekia Boyd. Shereese Francis. Aiyana Jones.

You may have heard of Laquan, Trayvon, and Michael. But you don’t know Malissa, Tanisha, Sharmel, Rekia, or Aiyana. All of them were murdered in cold blood by police.

Aiyana was seven. They set her blanket on fire and shot her in the head. It was being filmed. No convinctions.

Shelly shoplifted from Walmart and they shot her in the neck. No convictions.

Rekia was at a party. A white police man shot into a crowd, without looking, and hit her in the neck twice. No convictions

No convictions

No convictions

No convictions

No

There will never be justice for Laquan or Aiyana. They’re already dead. They were children and they were gunned down by Police.

No more justice for the dead. We need justice for the black boys and girls who are still alive, still living in constant fear of a badge and gun.

Justice for the black boys and girls who are alive today but tomorrow will be put down by a man in blue who “feared for his life”. What about her life? What about her family’s life? What about all the lives that have been taken and taken and taken by those who are supposed to protect us?

Police look at black people and they don’t see civilians, needing protection, they see targets and punching bags and freebies. They kill little boys and girls with the satisfaction of knowing they’ll get away with it. Jason Van Dyke proves they’ll get away with it.

If there’s video of you murdering a *practically* unarmed, retreating young man; if you lied and there’s evidence that you falsified documents; if you’ve had 20 other complaints filed against you, including for excessive force and racial slurs; if you’re the first Chicago cop convicted of murder for an on-duty incident- and you still get off with 3 years prison time and probration... why not murder? Why not gun our children down in the streets?

No one’s stopping you.

[therealbornfree]

#therealbornfree #jussiesmollett #chicago #chicagopd #laquanmcdonald #history https://www.instagram.com/p/BuMemnphcJh/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1vk3jme42vmm9

[israelunitedinchristchicago]

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[cgrgry]

@arielzemanuel #AriEmanuel as of today #BlackAmerica is Requesting the @illinoisdems @democraticparty Cut All Ties with your Brother @rahmemanuel and for him immediately resend his ambassadorship to JAPAN and no longer represent America until he apologize for #LaquanMcDonald 16 Shots and a Coverup to. #BlackAmerica And he can start with making a million dollar donation to any #BlackAmericanCharity of his Choice but Not to #BlackLiesMatter nor to #NAACP #CancelRahmEmanuel Until he apologized In a public forum to the #blackcommunity here in #Chicago (at Cook County Democratic Party) https://www.instagram.com/p/CkDN6BZOGEZ/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[speakin-4-myself]

#LaquanMcDonald https://www.instagram.com/p/Boj_5wzBeuu/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1lngaonshzn4w

[natturnersrevenge1831]

Reposted from @balleralert #JasonVanDyke, the white #Chicago cop convicted for fatally shooting a Black teenager in 2014 has been released from prison early. Van Dyke was released early this morning after spending three years and four months behind bars for fatally shooting 17-year-old #LaquanMcDonald in October 2014. The former cop was sentenced to nearly seven years in 2019 after being convicted on second-degree murder and aggravated battery charges the year before. Van Dyke’s behavior in prison is said to have earned him an early release. _______ Me: Laquan shouldve said he was a moor right?...right. https://www.instagram.com/p/CZhuZ4QPTtJ/?utm_medium=tumblr

[will-theartist]

CHECK ME OUT TONIGHT 8pm!!! @bigmoufradioshow ・・・ TONIGHT we welcome local visual artist @will_theartist 🎨to the #redcupstudios 🗣Politics, News and Entertainment! @bigmoufradioshow airs #live #Friday 8-10pm on @1500radio 📻🎧🎙🔥(past shows in bio) . . . . . . #moufmag #moufOFF #thebigmoufradioshow #bigmoufradio #bmrs #blackpodcast #podcast #MissDany #BIGRahb #poochhall #laquanmcdonald #supportlocalartists #onlineradio #internetradio #1500radio #1500radiofam #dmvradio #iheartradio #xmradio #92qjams #wpgc955 #wkys939 #baltimore #dmv #dc #md #va (at Baltimore, Maryland) https://www.instagram.com/p/BokS5-wBRVD/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1vds9zmf2lqiy